Hostgator - Major Problems

I recently started hosting a few websites with hostgator, mainly by suggestions from the forum here.

I have been having major problems from the start. Basically the server goes down something like every 10 minutes and then will have off and on connectivity for an hour or more. The server has had more than 6 major outages in the last 12 hours. The setup I'm using is a shared dedicated, so it isn't the cheapest package out there.

Hostgator support is quick, but so far they have been completely unable or willing to try and fix the problem. I setup a server monitoring service that I use for my ecommerce sites. It basically checks the site every 5 minutes from 5 locations around the world.

When I went to host gator with actual statistics about how much the site has been going down, they came back very defensively telling me that my server monitoring software is broken, and that my site actually hasn't been going down. Nevermind the fact that I haven't been able to access it myself as well. Personally I think 6 independant locations that loose connection to a server is enough to declare that there is a problem.

Anyway, Im think of just canning hostgator completely and finding something different. Quick support doesn't really mean anything if there is never a positive resolution.

Any thoughts, or other smilar experiences?

 

no different than Bluehost. The search continues...

 

Why don't you get someone else to independantly monitor the site as well

then they can't tell you that it's just your monitoring software

this is quite strange, I've never had any downtime

 

I don't think I'd heard of a bad report about them ever. Maybe Im that one broken case that every business runs into.

I'll look into having a 3rd party monitor it. Since the monitoring software is a 3rd party, wouldn't that count? I currently use Alertra for the monitoring.

 

I've never had any problems with them ever either. I've heard they have problems with dedicated servers sometimes, but I don't know about that. Like I've said though... never any problem. I love them, recommend them fully to anyone (and often do), and unless they completely change one day, I don't have any intentions of ever leaving them... especially after all of GoDaddy's crap.

Sorry you're having trouble though.

Jenn

 

Alertra is definitely one of the best monitoring companies available. I would believe what Alertra says over what Host Gator says just about any day. Especially if you can do a spotcheck when Alertra says it's down and see where it's down from.

 

I have a few sites in hostgator (one acct. many domains) and during my first month I was having the same problems. But I must say that they improved the service (uptime) after much bitching and moaning. Timeframe was Dec'05 - Jan '06.

 

Here' todays stats:
Outages: 6
Downtime: 00:37.42
%Uptime: 96.016%

In my book, that's pretty bad.

I taked to them again several times today, and they think it is the connection just outsite of the network, an ISP owned router / switch or something. Then they proceeded to tell me that there is nothing they can do about it since it isn't their equipment. Pretty much convinced me to find a new host with a response like that.

 

Well of course they would deny all wrong-doing. I was thinking of opening a reseller account with them, after a long search. But the support staff are about as helpful as a kick in the shins.

I use host-tracker.com, they send instant emails when it detects a sites down and what error response etc.

 

Here's an email from my webhost 8/30/2006 - beat this:

Dear Client:
Last night there was an attack on the Netbunch servers. Some of the
server got hacked and were completely erased. We are currently working
with our best administrators and security experts to have the servers
restored. On certain servers the backups were attacked as well
resulting in deletion of data. If you site is down and you have backup of your
data, PLEASE open a trouble ticket requesting your account to be
recreated on a new and secured server. WebHostPlus would like to assure all
clients that all necessary measures is been taken to find the person
responsible and take legal action.


Thank you,
WebHostPlus

 

I had problems with hostgator, down sometimes. I complained, got the answer:

"We have increased the amount of resources that Apache is allowed to use on the server to 600mb, which should resolve the issue. Please let us know if Apache goes down again."

Can any of you explain what they did ?

all the best, c.

 

Cheaper is not always better...

I know I've said it before, but it needs to be said again. There are a lot of people on DP that do web hosting. We do. We own and man our own facility and have done so for 10 years now.

If you have had enough, why not give us a shot! http://www.hostdrive.com

 

I just signed up with Hostgator for a module/plugin test site I have. I haven't experienced any problems with them but then again, I'm not always there. I use Cyberwurx for my other live sites and have had this same problem off and on. They've been quick to resolve it though.

 

Hostgator isnt the trouble free hosting some like to believe. I havent had any MAJOR problems but there have been numerous glitches and i have to agree with the original poster tyhat support staff is VERY defensive. Numerous times iv'e had even the support manager email back some snarky remark how its not there fault and i should look into a semi dedicated (this was when i was just installing my site and had 0 traffic! except for myself) and when i blasted back i had a lower level employee who looked into it further tell me i was right and some user had a runaway script or too many connections etc... This has happened twice and had other issues.

Also i dont know if this is standard but when i was asking about downtime and their garauntee they told me the apache service doesnt count, it only counts if their network or equipment fails. Isnt apache sevice part of their network? If the apache serviceis down that means my site is down and I would consider that downtime but apparently they dont.

 

I did have problems with hostgator when I tried to run a Joomla or Mambo site, leading to server crashes. So I changed the CMS- Seems to be a resource problem.
Drupal seems to work well.
Wordpres is OK, but sometimes gets very slow

 

I have had a Hostgator account for almost a year with zero problems. I have 10 sites right now on my shared account with them running wordpress, joomla, and many different custom scripts. I think every host has its issues every now and then, is the nature of internet and technology in general. No webhost is perfect....it just depends on how the host handles the problems that crop up.

 

From our stand point as a web hosting company, we only count an outage if our entire network is completely unreachable. Servers are upgraded all the time, they are constantly maintained or troublehooting is going on.

That said, it is near impossible (if you get large enough) to not have some service down at some point during the day. If it is happening all the time, well I can see where one might have a point. But if it is a routine maintenance window, or as they said, some script running away, etc... (which does happen), this is perfectly acceptable.

If your needs call for being up 24/7 without the slightest glitch, ie., no exceptions what so ever, then you should really consider going redundant and having overlapping/backup servers and or hosts. Otherwise, like anything in life, nothing is 100%. Oh, we all try to get close, but it's not possible. Not even the 5 9's so many talk about is possible. I would say 98.99999 is probably more plausible in our industry.

Now I am not defending them either way. I am just saying from another perspective from someone in the business. You do the best you can, and try to help where you can. Like I tell my customers on those rare occassions where something bad happens and they want to know why I tell them; "sometimes things just break."

Stuff breaks. However we do what we can to prevent that from happening and we do all we can to have a fall back plan in place when and if it does.

 

Right now I think I have 35 sites up although not all public or live yet, on Hostgator and I've tried an awful lot of scripts and such in the past. I used Mambo for a while w/o any issues, I use CMSMS now for almost every site and don't have issues because of it, I've tried Drupal and others too, tried two directory scripts, blog platforms, etc. and none of them caused any kind of reaction different than the others. So I'm not sure what the issue with Mambo/Joomla was with your account. I did have one minor glitch with them today, which is extremely rare. I tried setting up a database for a new cmsms installation and it said I'd reached my maximum - but they're unlimited. So I called them and they fixed it w/in about a minute. As with the other very few times I've had to call or email them, the customer service rep was completely friendly and helpful. I just can't really complain about a single thing with this company.

 

Try Site5, none complaints so far.

 

i had use hostgator in the past and they where very inresponsable.